The Elder Shepard
by Drucchi
Summary: The Alliance has had many heroes in its long history, many of them lost and forgotten. Three months after the battle for the citadel, Cerberus found one, Major Gabriel Shepard. Lost since the first contact war and eager for revenge on those that hurt him.
1. The major

Disclaimer: If it doesn't belong to bioware its mine.

The Elder Shepard.

The Necropolis has many nickname's, including The Ark of Oblivion, The City of the Dead, the End of the Line and many other equally poetic, but still very fitting names, as the Necropolis is the final destination of all who enter. The Necropolis is one of three prison ships operated by the Turian Hierarchy, the others being the Inferno and the Purgatory. The purgatory was sold a few years ago to the Blue Suns, because of Budget cuts. The Necropolis houses the lifers, the murderers, the traitors and all others whom the Hierarchy doesn't want to see again. Three months after the battle of the citadel, an anonymous shuttle, containing one of the most unlikely of guests arrived.

In the shuttle Miranda Lawson were preparing for the liberation of one of humanity's forgotten heroes. Miranda paced back and forth in the passenger compartment of the shuttle arguing with her omni-tool, or more precisely a voice through her omni-tool. "Tell me again, why do you want me to free this man? If what you say is true, he should have easily been able to escape." The she stated with an annoyed look on her face.

In the other end of the galaxy The Illusive Man sighed and shook his head. "We have hired mercenaries to recover Shepard's corpse, we have even been able to convince Dr. T'soni, but they are not human, they are not Cerberus, and we need an ace in the hole, we need one who would tear the galaxy apart to recover the commander. He is a man that would do exactly that, and he is one of the few people would actually be able to pull it off."

Miranda activated her omni-tool and brought up the classified file of the inmate. "It has been twenty-six years since he was captured, how do you even know, that he can fight like he used to, or that…" She paused for a moment, accepting that her boss did indeed have a point, yet she still wasn't entirely convinced. "You know what happens to people after years of imprisonment, they become lethargic and…"

The Illusive man cut her off and elaborated: "If he has become lethargic, then prove to him that the Shepard family didn't die at Shanxi, and if that does not work…" He paused for a moment. "Inform him of the death of Commander Shepard, I can guarantee you that that information will awaken the major, no matter what his mental condition might be."

Miranda was about to argue, but she was interrupted by the pilot, and a shudder going through the vessel: "Mam, we have docked with Necropolis, you can board now." With a grunt she left the shuttle and entered the Necropolis.

As she entered the ship she was greeted by armed guards, and a female turian with an arrogant aura around her that rivaled that of her own. The turian stepped forward and addressed Miranda: "Welcome to the Necropolis, as you have been informed, you will have to relinquish any weapons before you can enter the prison proper." The turian pointed to a locker on the side of the room. With a grimace, Miranda complied. "Now follow me to my office, we have business to attend to." The turian made a gesture for Miranda to follow and left the entry hall, with Miranda not far behind. During the walk towards the office through the catwalks overlooking the common areas of the prison, she noticed one strange thing about the prison, practically no human prisoners, there were plenty of batarians, asari, turians and salarians, but she only saw one human. The common area was a quite large rectangular area with round tables spread around evenly in the room. In either end of the room were corridors leading to the different cellblocks. She looked down upon him and he looked up, for the first time in twenty six years, he saw another human, for the first time in years, he smiled.

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"… And when we get out of here we will assemble a force that will make the blitz look like a mere gang of vorcha." A very angry batarian stood on a table yelling anti-human rants at the batarian crowd below, until he was interrupted.

"Balak will you shut up, you got tricked by a girl, live with it." Came a stern voice from the other end of the room. The figure walked towards the batarians and continued. "I have been here longer than everyone, I have seen plenty of escape attempts, and I have seen them all fail."

Balak jumped down from the table and with a furious glare and a clenched fist he walked to meet him. "So human, since you seem to know all there is to know about this place, why don't you enlighten us with you brilliant insight in escaping the ship?"

With a completely uninterested look on his face the human said: "I don't know what they teach you at that pathetic excuse of a totalitarian state that you call a government, but in the alliance we are taught that you should never divulge your battle plan to the enemy. But out of pity I will give you this, don't use the air ducts, there is turrets on the other end."

That insult to his home was the final straw for Balak, he drew his fist back and attempted to strike at the human. Yet halfway through the punch something strange happened, Balak felt the human grab his wrist and shortly after he was struck in the face by the human's elbow. Not willing to give Balak any time to recover, the human quickly followed his attack with a knee in the batarian's gut and an uppercut, resulting in Balak lying beaten and dumbfounded on the cold floor. The human just shook his head and walked back to his table, while the entire prison laughed at Balak's misfortune.

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The office of the ship was surprisingly clean and orderly, compared to the rest of the ship, art dotted the walls and tables. The turian directed Miranda to a chair in front of a very classy desk, while she herself sat down behind it. The turian folded her hands and stared at Miranda for about thirty seconds before she began. "So what brings an alliance representative to this end of the galaxy? The message I received from the embassy was very vague about the subject of this meeting, and I don't like being held in the dark."

Miranda quickly realized that this would be a battle of wills, one she intended to win. She folded her hands and began: "The alliance has received Intel that you have an alliance officer in your custody, we want him released."

The turian looked at her puzzled and said: "We only have one human in custody, and according to our files he has been here for the last twenty six years, this is the first we have heard from the alliance regarding the prisoner."

Miranda glared at the turian and explained: "The Alliance has only recently learned of his survival, and we want him released, immediately." She leaned back into her chair and fell into her usual arrogant facial expression.

"No" Miranda was quite taken aback the frankness of the answer. "No we will not release him, I am under orders to keep him detained, indefinitely." Her mandibles vibrated furiously. "His actions resulted in the destruction of both the Verkos and the entire colony of Morran. He is never leaving this ship."

Miranda sensing that this was a sensitive spot for the turian, pressed the issue. "And how exactly did he do that?"

The turian responded with barely contained fury: "He commandeered a dreadnought and crashed it into the colony killing everyone, an act of terror on such a scale warrants nothing less than lifelong imprisonment."

"First off the attack on the Verkos was a legitimate act of war, and secondly I want to hear his side of the story, I want to know if you have any basis for your accusations. And are you aware by detaining him for the last 26 years and by denying me access to him you are breaking no less than four citadel conventions, that crime would land right on the other side of the bars in this prison." She hoped that she had annoyed the turian enough to want her out of the turians face, but not enough to make her throw Miranda out of the airlock.

"Fine, if it gets you off my ship." She sighed, probably wondering why she had even agreed to letting Miranda talk to the prisoner. "A guard will escort you to an interrogation room, there you can have a chat with your "Major"."

Miranda left the room with a smirk on her face, things were going exactly as planned. True to her word, a guard did lead her to an interrogation room. The room contained nothing more than two chairs and a table, the prisoner sat on one chair while chained to the table. She walked into the room and sat down in front of him. The prisoner had both long hair and a very large beard, neither had seen a scissor or razor in a very long time. His face was scarred and pale, and his eyes totally without emotion, like someone who had lost everything a long time ago. She activated her omni-tool and asked quietly: "What is your name and rank soldier?"

He looked up and what appeared to be a glimmer of hope returned to his eyes: "Major Gabriel Shepard, mam."

Miranda placed a recording device on the table and slid it over to the Gabriel. "Tell me how you here soldier."

He picked it up and began: "Twenty six years ago, Shanxi, Blackwater base, Systems Alliance colonial headquarters." His facial expression turned distant as he relived past memories.

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Twenty six years earlier.

Gabriel sat on the bunk in his quarters staring at an old picture. The picture was of his wife and daughter, Hannah and Jane Shepard. Both had recently perished at the hands of the aliens when the refugee ship they were on was destroyed. He was entirely lost within the picture, at some point a soldier barged into his quarters. The soldier was panting, he looked like he had been running errands in the base for quite some time and was obviously tired. He saluted and with a pleading look on his face handed Shepard a data pad. Shepard put away the picture, took the data pad and waved the soldier away with a: "You're dismissed, go get some rest boy." The data pad contained scans and tactical data of a dreadnought, heavy shielding, lots of guns and a crew of thousands, Shepard had been in enough suicide missions to recognize one in the making. The basic plans for a counterattack began to form in his head, he wondered if it was even possible. To get the job done he would need dreadnought class firepower, every single N7 on the planet, over a ton of explosives and a shitload of luck, yes definitely a suicide mission. He removed the image of his family from the frame of the picture, folded it and put it in his pocket. He grabbed the data pad, turned to leave the room and muttered: "To think that two months ago I intended to retire and become a high school teacher, crazy how much an alien invasion can fuck up your plans."

Elsewhere in the base general Williams opened up the intercom and said: "All N7 personnel, and pilots report to the Hangar in 60 minutes, Major Shepard report to my office immediately." Shepard stared at one of the loudspeakers for a few seconds before complying with his superiors' orders.

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Gabriel walked into the generals' office, the general sat behind his desk clutching an empty glass in one hand and a bottle of scotch in the other. Shepard walked over to him and took the bottle from the general sat down in front of him: "Sir, the men need you thinking clearly, not fighting hangovers." The general acknowledged Shepard's presence with an annoyed grunt. He collected himself, put away the glass and said: "We are in a grade A shitstorm here old friend, if the blockade isn't broken soon we are going to have no other options but to surrender." He sighed and continued. "I've managed to get communications through to Acturus, they are on their way, but they will need a distraction, unfortunately that is where we come in. The techs have repaired the big guns, we are to use them on that dreadnought the aliens have brought into low orbit. We can only fire a few volleys before the aliens can make a counterattack, you will have to board the ship, because there is no way we can bring the ship down with the big guns before they can make a counterattack."

"So this is it, the last charge of the light brigade." Shepard got up and left the room.

"Hopefully not." The general replied, his eyes followed Shepard as he left.

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The base chaplain was an old retired soldier turned clergyman, he had been through more combat than most of the soldiers at the base combined and had earned the Purple Heart more times than anyone cared to remember. Everyone respected him, no matter their religious views. He walked into the base chapel to prepare for the evening sermons, when he reached the altar he saw a lone figure sitting on the front bench with his face in his hands, it was the major. The chaplain sat down next to him and said: "Hello major, I don't think I have seen you in here before."

"It is because you haven't." The major replied. "I have never been much of a believer, but now, with all that's happened, I just don't know."

"Let me be frank with you major, I have never cared much for the personal spiritual beliefs of the soldiers, to me my duty is to provide guidance to those who need it." He paused for a moment and put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "And right now, I think that it is you who need it."

Shepard sighed and said: "To be honest I don't even know why I came in here." He turned his head and was met by the stern gaze of the chaplain.

"Oh I think you do know, I think you came here hoping that I would tell you what god wants you to do, to stand up for Jesus and fight the good fight, I won't do that." He paused for a moment, allowing Gabriel to soak up what he had said before he continued. "I don't even think that it's God you should be fighting for, there are others you should be fighting for. When you go out there today, don't think of God or Jesus, think of your daughter, think of your wife, fight for them."

Gabriel was about to say something, but was interrupted by the intercom: "All N7 and support personnel report to the hangar immediately."

Gabriel got up, and just when he was about to leave the chapel the chaplain spoke up. "You never told me, are you a Christian son?"

Shepard replied with a smile: "I am tonight." The chaplain simply smiled back.

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A few minutes later Shepard joined up with his troops in the hangar. Two hundred N7 commandoes along with pilots, medics and engineers were under his command, he wondered if it would be enough. He stepped onto a crate in the middle of the hangar and yelled to his men: "Everyone listen up. The general has just received word from Acturus, the fleets are coming, but we got to hold ET's attention until they get here."Everyone present stared at Shepard in disbelief and he continued with a confident smile: "Our target is a dreadnought that they have recently brought into low orbit, our job is to bring it all the way down. The techs have brought the big guns back online, when we give the signal they will cripple the target and we will move in for the kill. We split up in teams of ten and move through the ship planting bombs at everything looks important." After 15 minutes of going through battle plans with his men the loud wail of the klaxon rang through the base. Everyone sprang to attention and Shepard yelled: "Everyone get to your stations, we are moving out." Everyone loaded up on the ships and within minutes the strike force was airborne.

Gabriel stood in the hold of the lead transporter with the rest of his troops, he looked around at his troops with a sense of pride, each of them had worked hard to be the best soldiers Earth had to offer and all of them were eager to prove themselves, now they certainly had the chance. He walked up to the cockpit, his gaze meeting each of the soldiers in turn. Three of them stood out above the rest, Jester, Mossad and Taliban, he always thought it strange how the best soldiers somehow always got the worst nicknames. He positioned himself behind the pilot and said: "Jester, ETA to the target?"

"Eta, two minutes."

"Good, transmit the following to Blackwater, Operation command code Hammerfall, initiate operation Clear the way."

"Yes sir." Jester replied and made some inputs on his terminal. Moments later the big guns of Blackwater opened fire blasting away at the cruiser. When the aliens finally realized what had happened their shields were down and the guns had been drawn back into cover. Stage two of the operation had begun.

With their shields down, the ships hangar bay was wide open to a boarding action, just as Gabriel had hoped "Major, the enemy hangar bay is wide open,"

Gabriel activated his comm and spoke to his troops: "We board the enemy vessel momentarily get ready." He ran up to Jester and said: "Monitor the comms, hail me when the fleet arrives and tell them that we're here, I don't want em to be shooting at this boat when were still inside." Jester simply nodded.

The transports flew into the hangar guns blazing and shooting everything that moved. The commandoes were dropped off, and within minutes they had taken control of the hangar. Gabriel was the first soldier off the transport. As his men disembarked he shouted commands at the: "Jester you are mission control, get a perimeter set up and hold the fort until we come back. Alpha team you are with me, everybody you have your orders, now move out:" shouts of "sir yes sir "and the heavy footsteps of more than two hundred men vibrated through the halls of the hangar. The men ran in different directions each seeking their designated target. Gabriel led his men towards the bridge.

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At first things went fine, but about halfway into the operation, things began to go wrong. As they were fighting the ship began to rumble and shake, and Gabriel knew, that was always a bad sign. Gabriel brought up his comm and shouted: "Jester tell me that that was an alliance ship that caused that shaking."

Jester replied in a very worried voice: "Sorry sir, the dreadnought has just gone FTL, and no word from the alliance."

Gabriel slammed his fist into a wall and yelled: "Dammit, ok men we need to get to the bridge and stop them from fleeing any further."

The Major and his man fought their way through the ship, yet he and had his men had to pay for each inch in blood. When Gabriel reached the bridge about half of his men had fallen, and the fighting were growing more and more desperate by the minute. As they got to the door that led to the bridge, he instructed his men to plant breaching charges on the door. He opened up his comm. and contacted the team that was assaulting the drive core. "Status report." He said in a very no-nonsense tone of voice.

There was a great amount of static on the line, and Gabriel could barely hear the voice on the other end. "Sir we are pinned down, we have planted and armed the explosives, but we can't move anywhere." The soldier on the other end replied with just a hint of desperation in his voice.

"I care how you do it, but get the hell out of there, that is an order soldier."

"Yes sir."

He closed the comm. and hailed Jester: "Jester we have reached the bridge, we are breaching in 2 minutes. Have everyone retreat to the breach and prepare for evac. Now get the wounded stabilized and loaded up and be ready to leave when we get back."

"Sir you need to hurry, we have lost 64 men and multiple teams are trapped throughout the ship. We are going to need time to get them out of there, sir please hurry´..." His voice trailed off and quickly became frantic: "They are dropping off from the Zero-mass corridor, the deceleration will set off the charges!"

Gabriel cut him off and opened his comm. for all of his men and shouted: "Everybody back to the shuttles, the ship is about to blow." He had barely finished uttering his sentence before the ship shook again, this time followed by a massive explosion that threw everyone off their feet. He got back up as quickly as he could, and tried hailing whomever he could. "Jester, Beta team, Gamma, is anyone listening?" There was no response. And to make matters worse, the hallway they had entered by, had collapsed, there were only one way out, forward to the bridge.

He sighed, trying to get a hold of the situation. The way back to the transports was blocked, most of his men were likely dead and their only way forward was straight through the most heavily guarded part of the ship. This truly was the last charge of the N7 brigade. He looked at his men lying dazed on the floor and said: "Anyone who isn't dead make a sound." The groaning of his men was answer enough for him.

Mossad was the first man on his feet, and the first thing he did was to check on the explosives on the door. He looked back on the others and said: "The explosives are still intact, we can still breach the door."

Gabriel picked up his assault rifle from the floor and said: "Grab your guns people, we are getting out of here. Mossad you work the charges, the rest of you take cover." They did as ordered, Mossad activated the countdown, the charges blew and the door fell. Gabriel and his team rushed through the breach and opened fire upon the already confused aliens. At this point the commandos really didn't care how many aliens they had to kill, they just wanted to get the hell off of the ship. The dazed and confused crew was in no position to fight back and was quickly gunned down, all except for one. In the rear of the bridge was a raised platform, with a very angry looking alien standing on top. The alien grabbed an assault rifle and opened fire at the commandoes, killing one. Before the alien could move on to another target everyone was knocked to their feet by another explosion. The alien fell over the side of the platform he stood on, Gabriel saw an opening, and took it. He didn't even bother to get up, while still lying on the ground he grabbed his pistol and fired until it overheated, the alien died. He got up and walked over to the alien and made sure he was dead.

He looked back at his men and yelled: "Look for escape pods, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be here when this ship blows." He was distracted by a flashing light on the alien's platform, he walked up to it, and realized that it was still active. He started fiddling with it, and to his surprise it was strikingly similar to what they were using at the alliance.

Taliban walked up behind him and asked: "Sir do you know how to use that thing?"

Gabriel shook his head and said: "No, but it seems to be based on the same technology… uh oh."

Taliban looked at Gabriel in disbelief: "Can you actually understand any of this?"

Gabriel's facial expression turned dire and he said: "No, but I can recognize a Decaying orbit alert when I see one." He grabbed his weapon, vaulted over the platform and yelled: "Times up people, where's that escape pod I ordered?"

Mossad came running in from an adjacent corridor and yelled: "Found 'em sir, follow me."

Two minutes later Gabriel had escaped with the few men he had left. Through the window in the pod they could see the dreadnought crash into an alien colony, the resulting blast formed a mushroom cloud. It took a moment for Gabriel to realize what had happened. The aliens had had nukes onboard. Tragically he forgot a side effect of the detonation of a nuclear device, EMP. As the blast wave from the explosion slammed into the pod, it was also bombarded by electromagnetic radiation which fried all the circuitry in the pod. The strangely beautiful sight of an atomic mushroom cloud was the last thing Gabriel could remember before he awoke wounded and in the process of being dug out of a wrecked escape pod by aliens.

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Present day.

Miranda snapped her fingers in front of Gabriel's face and said: "Are you ok major? You seem distracted by something."

Gabriel shook his head and said: "Sorry, the general wanted me to bring an alien dreadnought down, I did so, killed a shitload of aliens and lost every single soldier under my command, no wonder you abandoned me."

Miranda suppressed a snort, she was not impressed with the man in front of her, according to the men who had served under him, he had an iron will and was ridiculously tough. The man in front of her looked broken, he looked like he had given up hope, in the future, the alliance and himself. Miranda looked confused at Gabriel and said: "Your assessment of mission objectives, results and enemy casualties seems to be accurate, but according to reports by a Jonathan Moreau there were 65 survivors, not including you." She paused for a moment before she continued: "We did not abandon you, until now we thought you had died."

When he heard the name Moreau his eyes lit up and he whispered: "Jester survived?"

A slight smile crept over Miranda's lips, she knew that she had his attention, time to bring out the heavy artillery. "Yes he did, he retired some years ago, but his son is serving with your daughter in the military." She lied, Joker had left the alliance the week after commander Shepard died.

Gabriel snarled at Miranda, he hated when people lied to him, and he could easily tell if you were, but the lie he caught was not the one he thought: "Don't bullshit me bitch, my daughter died along with her mother, trying to flee Shanxi."

Miranda almost felt sorry for turians considering what she was about to do… almost. She pulled two datapads up from a bag, and gave them to Gabriel. "These contain your wife and daughter's files, service records everything." With a sly smile on her face she said: "I have to leave now, I hope I'll see you again… Major." She picked her recorder and left the room, hoping that the elder Sheppard was as good as his daughter.

Gabriel's muscles tensed with barely contained rage, he had spent twenty six years in a turian prison for no reason, he had given up. Now he understood why she had come, she had dared him to escape, and he was not going to disappoint.

R/R please.

Plus I fixed some typos I missed the first time round.


	2. The cell

The elder shepard chapter 2

That night Gabriel sat in his cell thinking about what the alliance representative had told him. He sat on his bed with his face in his hands, just like twenty-six years ago on Blackwater. He wondered how he should escape, during his long stay in the prison he had learned just about everything there was to know about the prison, when the guards changed shifts, where the turrets were placed, even access codes to the elevators, the only obstacle barring his way to freedom was the door on his cell, and even mass effect field reinforced steel and Plexiglas could be broken with the right weapon, and the guards did not know that the previously broken and tame wolf in the cell, had awakened and was hungry for blood.

A few years back he had noticed that his bed was beginning to rust, yet when he informed the guard of this he was ignored. Gabriel thought it delightfully ironic how their mistreatment of him would lead to his escape, as an iron pipe would be exactly what he would need to escape.

The guards usually reacted quickly when inmates trashed their cells, as the cells were expensive to build and with an ever decreasing budget all damage to the cells effectively came out of the guards pay. Understandably the guards usually became quite angry when you attempted to damage your cell, and usually responded quite quickly. His escape plan required a guard's keycard and weapons, he would need to overpower a guard and claim his keycard and tracing beacon. The keycard would give him access to the rest of the ship, and the beacon would make the many turrets on the ship ignore him.

A few hours after lights out, he sat his plan into motion, he grabbed hold of one of the iron pipes that his bed was made of and tore. A few moments later his bed was broken and he stood with an iron pipe in his hands. He now found himself armed, although with a quite primitive weapon, but armed nonetheless. He began trashing his cell, and with great efficiency, as he had over two and a half decades of bottled up rage to fuel the destruction.

His plan had worked, three guards quickly responded with predictable force. They ran down towards his cell, thinking him easy prey, they were wrong. He had put the bed up vertically, covering about half of the door. He made himself ready for the inevitable charge.

One of the guards, a turian thinking himself invincible, ran through opening in the door, assault rifle in hand. Gabriel vaguely remembered playing baseball in his youth, smashing the guards skull felt strikingly similar, and quite satisfying. The assault rifle flew from his hands, right into Gabriel's. Gabriel kicked down the bed, pinning one of the guards under it, and before the other guard could respond he became the unfortunate recipient of multiple headshots. Hearing moaning under the bed, he fired a shot in the approximate location of the guards head, moments later large amounts of blue blood began to flow out from under the bed.

One of the guard's communicators began to make noise: "Hey, what happened, anyone there?"

Gabriel cleared his throat, and began making his best salarian impersonation: "I have three men down, the prisoner and two guards, send a cleanup crew down here. One more thing, the prisoner destroyed my beacon, I can't get out unless you disable the turrets in the corridor."

After a few moments the guard on the other end of the comm. responded: "Affirmative, disabling turrets in corridor delta, you got three minutes before they go back online."

Three minutes was far more than Gabriel needed, he took a keycard from one of the guards and ran for the elevator.

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"Ahhh I am so tired of this job Halian, they pay and hours suck, and we have to deal with these scumbags on a daily basis."

"Look on the bright side, once we're done here we move up a citizenship tier and we're off to administrative work." They passed a corner and reached the elevator to corridor delta. "Hmm that's odd the elevator is headed up…" The last thing the two turians saw was the very angry human in the elevator.

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Gabriel had forgotten the rush of combat, the feeling of the adrenaline running through his veins, the cold steel of a weapon in his hands, it felt good to feel those things again, he could not possibly describe how much he had missed that feeling. He stepped over the corpses of the two unfortunate turians who had gotten in his way mere moments ago. To his right he noticed a map of the ship. He scratched his head and said: "What? They put up a map… next to the elevator to maximum security?" He began laughing, they assumed that no inmate could get up here so they didn't implement any safety precautions, their loss, their loss indeed.

_So he is finally out, of his cell, let's see whether he can manage to get out of the ship._


	3. The girl

The elder Shepard chapter 3.

The Prison's control room was a small one, staffed by only one crewmember. With the recently acquired state of art equipment, one technician could monitor the entire ship at once. This also meant that you only had to kill one person to get access to the ships systems. Allerya was one of the few asari on the ship who was not an inmate, she had gotten the thankless task of monitoring four thousand cells. There was always one guard in the room with her, today it was a turian. From her position behind the control station she yelled at her guard: "Hey Hallian, get me some coffee will ya?"

The turian answered, in a quite annoyed tone of voice: "Go get your own dam coffee, I'm not your fucking maid."

Allerya did not have much time for entertainment with the importance of her job, so she took her amusement where she could. Tormenting the guard assigned to the control room was usually easiest way to get a good laugh. With the most innocent voice she could manage she said: "Fine, I'll leave my post to get my own coffee, I'll leave four thousand inmates of the worst kind without surveillance. What a shame that no one help me, and make sure that no inmate will be without surveillance."

Hallian rolled his eyes and sighed: "Fine ill get your dam coffee." He left the room muttering insults under his breath. That was the last time she ever saw him alive, and the last time anyone saw her alive for that matter.

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Gabriel had feared that his skills had been dulled during the long years he had been imprisoned, his fears were unfounded, he was now, as before, a living breathing weapon of mass destruction. He hadn't lost his ability to memorize large amounts of information either, he knew exactly where he needed to go, the control room. As he approached he heard a turian cursing loudly, the curses were getting louder. Gabriel quickly took cover behind a corner. As the turian came closer, it became increasingly evident that Gabriel had chosen the wrong place to hide, the turian was mere moments away from walking right past him. Gabriel decided that one corpse in a hallway wasn't going to matter much in a few minutes, so he stepped out right in front of the turian and planted his fist square in his face. Before the turian could react he grabbed hold of his head and snapped the turian's neck. Gabriel consulted his mental map and dashed off towards the control room. None of the guards who stood in his way proved to be much of a challenge.

As he walked into the control room someone spoke up: "You get my coffe? Took you long enough."

He walked up next to her, pointed a pistol at her face and said: "No coffe, I got a bullet for you instead." The muzzle of Gabriel's pistol was the last thing Allerya ever saw.

Gabriel pulled the corpse off of the chair and sat down in front of the console. He chuckled at the horror he was about to unleash on the prison guards. Gabriel was no stranger to hacking, it was one of the first things they taught at the N program, and he had designed the N program. As he scoured through the console he found many interesting commands, commands like turret targeting parameters and cell controls. A wicked smile crept across his face as he began to reprogram the ships systems. He realized that if he were to escape the ship, he would need a distraction, a rather large one in fact, so he decided to work with what he had at hand, full access to the systems of a ship containing some of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals. He reprogrammed the turrets to target the beacons instead of ignoring the people who carried them. About five seconds later Gabriel remembered that he had stolen one and quickly threw it away. To complete his diversion he opened every single cell in the prison and engaged all of the elevators.

Gabriel laughed a bit and said to nobody in particular: "Operation breakout has begun." He sifted through some drawers under the command console and found some OCD's. "These'll come in handy." He hooked one of them into the console and downloaded everything. When the download was done he took the OCD's and left. As he stood in the door he turned around and shot the console. They were not going to be able to use that any time soon.

As he left the room he muttered: "It is good to be back."

Mass Effect Mass Effect Mass Effect

Gabriel was a very good shot, and he was very tough, but he wasn't invulnerable, one guard got the jump on him and managed to shoot him in the gut. This meant that he had to make a detour to the infirmary. He was more than a little pissed at the turian who shot him, but the turian did not live long enough to know that. He ran towards the infirmary with one hand putting pressure on the wound in his gut and the other on his pistol. As he approached the infirmary he heard a scream, at turian scream of horror, not something you heard very often in this end of the galaxy.

As he entered the infirmary he saw the source if the screaming, it was a turian girl, and turian prisoner was in the process of ripping her clothes off, his intent obvious. He recognized the girl, she was a nurse, she had recently gotten transferred to the prison, likely as a part of her education. She was hardworking, well meaning and embarrassingly naïve. She believed that there were something good in everyone, even the people in here. Since Gabriel was a regular at the infirmary Gabriel had talked to her once or twice. While Gabriel did harbor a certain hatred for the turian race, he was still an honorable man and this girl had done nothing to him, or anyone else for that matter.

He stepped into the room and yelled: "Hey fuckhead keep your dick in your pants."

The turian looked up and growled: "What the hell are you doing here human?"

Gabriel pointed his gun at the turian and said: "Don't growl at me boy." Gabriel fired once and hit the turian in the neck. The turian grabbed his throat in a vain attempt to quell the torrent of blue blood coming from the gunshot wound. Seeing that the turian remained standing Gabriel shot him again, this time in the head, the turian died.

The female turian pushed the corpse of her would-be assailant off of her and said in a very unsteady voice: "What do you want?"

Gabriel removed his hand from his wound and pulled up his shirt revealing the wound to the turian. "Where do you keep the Medi-gel?"

The girl stumbled to her feet and ran over to a medical cabinet. She grabbed a Medi-gel dispenser and threw it to Gabriel, who rapidly emptied the dispenser into the wound in his gut. He made a very satisfied sigh and said: "Thank you."

She looked puzzled at him and said: "Why did you Help me? You are a prisoner here you didn't have to help me, you could just have ignored me, taken the Medi-gel and gone on you merry way."

"Well first of all I didn't really like the guy, secondly I need the biosignature of live employee to access the escape pods."

The moment she heard his intentions she snarled at him: "You are not taking me anywhere."

With a voice totally cold and emotionless he said: "I suggest keep your tone civil girl, I would hate to have to repeat myself." He gestured towards the corpse on the floor. He guided her towards a window and pointed at some combat on one of the lower levels. "You see that down there? That's the armory, your colleagues are about to lose control over it and when that happens all hell is going to break loose."

The girl stared at the combat below with horror, her mandibles vibrating madly, she tried to say something coherent but failed. He put a hand on her shoulder and said: "Are you willing to reconsider my offer?"

She nodded silently.

"Good, now let's find an escape shuttle and get the hell out of here."

The thought of escape of this terrible conflict seemed to calm her down a bit, she took a deep breath and said: "I have already tried it, but the warden has shut them all down to prevent escapes."

Gabriel sighed and with an annoyed look on his face said: "What's your name girl?"

"Tania." She replied, afraid that the anger on his face would be directed towards her.

While inspecting his pistol he said: "Well then Tania, let's go pay your boss a visit."

_So he has found a companion. I wonder what will happen when he finds the warden. And remember every time you read and don't review Gabriel kills another turian._


	4. The warden

Chapter 4

Warden Sinata sat behind the desk in her office directing the battle for the ship from there, and she was not doing well. She had called for reinforcements, but she knew that it was unlikely that they would arrive before the prisoners could escape. To buy her allies more time to arrive she had locked down the escape pods and shuttles. She prayed to the spirits that it would be enough. She had no idea how this could have happened, the cells were supposed to inescapable, the upper levels were supposed to impenetrable. She knew that many of the inmates were crafty, but none of them were supposed to orchestrate anything like this.

The path to the warden's office was surprisingly empty, and Gabriel avoided the few guards that were there, as he had no desire to give his companion any reason to turn against him. When they finally reached the wardens office most of the guards had been pulled away from the upper levels to contain the prisoners on the lower levels. The way to the warden was clear, so far there was only one loose end, her. He handed Tania a pistol and said: "Find a place to hide, you do not want to be near me when shit hits the fan."

She took the gun and with a very confused look on her face she asked: "What do you intend to do?"

Gabriel inspected his weapons while saying: "You're a turian, do you really expect her to back down and let me activate the pods?"

She shook her head and said: "No she wouldn't, she'd fight all the way, she would die before letting you out…" She stopped talking when she realized what he was going to do. She stared at him with a very frightened look on her face and said: "You're not going to kill her… are you?"

Gabriel walked over to a window and stared down at the fighting downstairs. "To be honest, before you entered the picture I intended to kill every single turian who would be unfortunate enough to get in my way." After seeing the look on her face he added: "Though in the interest of remaining civilized, I'll try not to kill her. There's a conference room about 50 meters back, go hide there, I'll come get you when it's all over."

Tania complied silently, not at all reassured that Gabriel would let her boss live.

Warden Sinata was angry, very angry, her men had lost the armory, she had lost contact with the control room and they were only hanging on by a thread at the engines and the elevators, in short things were not going well. She did not understand how this could happen, all of her guards were supposed to be hardened veterans, but they were crumbling under the attacks of the prisoners. And worst of all she had no idea how all of this had started, but before she could investigate the door to her office opened and revealed the identity of the mastermind behind this prison break, it the human.

From the other end of the room Gabriel said: "Hello warden." He raised his pistol, pointed it at her and shot.

The shot didn't hit, it was absorbed by a kinetic barrier. The warden reached under her table and pulled out a gun while saying: "I won't go down that easily Scourge."

Gabriel saw her reach under her table, he knew what she reached for. There was no cover in the room, the only way to get out of the potential line of fire, was to go back out the door, or go straight at her. Gabriel did the thing that felt most natural, he charged. He ran towards the table, used the chair in front of it as a stepping stone and leapt over the table, right into the warden. She was knocked off of her chair, and the both of them ended on the ground.

The warden was baffled, she had not expected savagery of this degree from a human, especially not this human. He had been lethargic and passive for as long as anyone could remember. Frankly she did not really care why the human had decided to take a more active role in prison affairs, she was more concerned with stopping him from killing her. She got to her knees and reached for her gun, when her hand was barely an inch away she was pulled away.

Gabriel saw her reach for the gun and yelled: "Oh no you don't." He grabbed hold of her collar, pulled her towards him and planted his fist on the side her face, and she was once again knocked to the ground. She began moaning in agony while rubbing her chin where he had hit her. She spat out a considerable amount of blood… and a tooth. In the meantime Gabriel had gotten to his feet. He walked over to her kicked her in the gut, knocking all the air out of her lungs. He circled her like a predator, awaiting its prey's next move and said: "You turians are a strange race, so much talk about being a military superpower, yet when the fighting starts you are always defeated by the rabble."

She didn't respond, she was too busy writhing in agony while trying to catch her breath. Apparently he had it sore spot or perhaps broken a rib or two. He once again grabbed hold of her collar and pulled her to her feet and growled at her: "Look at me when I am talking to you turian." Warden Sinata had not been truly afraid in a very long time, but looking into this human's face, an expression of pure fury, scared her. He dragged her over to her desk, slammed her face into it and said: "Enable the escape pods now."

She spat some more blood out while barely managing to say: "Fuck you."

With a snarl on his lips Gabriel slammed her face once again into the table. He pulled her face up next to his and said: "I didn't quite hear you. I suggest you do as I say, I can keep this up all day, can you?" When she refused to answer Gabriel said: "Ok fine, I guess I have to get rough."

To her credit he actually had to start ripping her mandibles off before she cracked, Gabriel was glad that it didn't have to come to that, tearing a turian's mandibles off was messy business. She typed in a command into her console, and shortly after a VI announced: "Escape pods activated." He jabbed one of the OSD's into her computer and transferred all files to them, when the download was done he removed them and said: "Thank you." He saw one of the camera buttons on her interface flash a bright red, out of sheer curiosity he pressed it. It activated the cameras in the engine room, where a between some guards and an asari was taking place. The guards were trying in vain to hold their ground against what could only be described as a very angry asari matriarch. She tossed the guards around like they were mere toys. One especially unfortunate guard was thrown directly into the core, with explosive results.

The alarms started wailing and a VI announced: "Core breach detected, engine and mass effect shutdown imminent."

Gabriel ran started running back to where he left Tania, but before he got out of the office entirely a voice called out to him. "You can't hide anywhere you monster, no matter where you run to, no matter where you hide, we will hunt you down, scourge of Morran ." It was the warden, her voice dripping with hate.

He slowed down, only for a moment and said: "You are welcome to try."

Tania was nervous, in truth she was hiding under a table shivering with fear, she never was a good turian. When the door opened she nervously pointed her gun in the general direction of the door, she lowered it immediately after hearing a familiar voice. "Tania, the ships about to blow, we gotta move."

She quickly got out from under the table and said: "What the hell did you do? The whole ship is shaking."

He pulled her to her feet and said: "This isn't my handiwork, an asari used one of your colleagues to destroy the core, and without it this ship will drop out of orbit." He ran out of the room with Tania following closely. The way to the escape pods were relatively clear, with only one or two prisoners getting in the way. The closer they got to the escape pods, the more obvious it became that the ship would not last long without its core. When they finally got to the pods, she put her hand on a scanner which opened the door to the pod. Gabriel shoved her in and jumped in after her. When both of them had strapped themselves in, she pressed the release button. As he stared out the window, watching the Necropolis burn up in the atmosphere of the planet it orbited, he realized: "I'm free."

On a shuttle a few thousand miles away Miranda Lawson were surveying the events on the Necropolis. She was impressed, in 6 hours the major had done what no other prisoner had done in twenty six years, he really was as good as his daughter. She opened up comm to the Illusive Man: "You were right, he is good. I am preparing a team for extraction."

_Holy shit he actually got out of that damned prison, let's see how he goes from there. Thanks for the reviews btw, they are a real motivator. Can you please tell me if that fight scene between the warden and Gabriel worked? _

_And as usual remember every time you read and don't review Gabriel kills a turian._


	5. The Hounds of Hades

Atmospheric reentry, the technical term for the act of falling towards a planet at supersonic speeds in a burning tin can while being shaken like a milkshake. It had been quite a while since Gabriel had been in such a situation, but it is not a sensation you forget. While reentry is a quite unpleasant experience, it does however get easier to handle with time, and Gabriel had done it more times than he bothered to remember. Tania on the other hand did not take it so well, judging by the pool of vomit at her feet.

He yawned and said: "Your first time in a drop?" She nodded silently, desperately trying to keep whatever was left in her stomach from escaping. "Ok, I know a trick that usually works for humans, but I don't know if it will work for you. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, focus on your heart beating and calm down." He began massaging where he assumed her temples would be, and she started… purring? She calmed down rather quickly, and just in time. Gabriel looked out the window the moment she calmed down and saw the ground rapidly approaching. Apparently the parachutes hadn't opened in time. He managed to yell: "Brace for impact." Moments before the pod made violent contact with the ground.

Rain, he could feel the rain on his skin, how long had it been since last time, years? Decades? He used to hate the rain, yet now he welcomed it, he loved how it felt on his skin, it felt somehow refreshing. He pushed some debris off of him and got to his feet. The pod was relatively intact, intact enough to be a shelter for a night or two. He saw Tania move, and she did not appear to be hurt, he walked over to her and pulled her to her feet.

He looked around, trying to get his bearings. They had landed near the end of a cliff, he walked over to the edge of it. He stared out over the landscape, forests, lakes and mountains, but no sign of civilization. Suddenly he felt a need, like some part of him desired release, he knew what it was. He screamed, at top of his lungs, one word, freedom. When he finally ran out of breath, he fell to his knees and whispered: "That felt good." Tania stared at him, a bit confused, but she could understand how after twenty six years in a cell, you might need a second or two to get some things out of your system. She was not the only one who heard him, the hounds of Hades were on the hunt.

Being a Cerberus commando was dangerous work, especially during the last few months where commander Shepard had made it her cause to bring down every single member of Cerberus she could get her hands on, Lucas and his squad were among the few survivors of Shepard's rampage through the Rachni project. He knew that there were something fishy about this mission, they are told that they are to break out a first contact vet, but when they arrive in the system they are told to wait. A few hours later the ship they were supposed to board blows up, and they are told to prepare to extract the target, multiple times he had to ask himself just what the fuck was going on here.

When they approached the landing site they heard someone screaming… freedom? The guy screaming was either a showman or he had been imprisoned for a very long time. They approached using state of the art cloaking tech, prototypes just out of the skunkworks. At the wreckage they saw a turian female talking to a human. He activated his comm. and said: "Command are you seeing this?"

Within a few seconds came a response: "There is a change of plans, apprehend both targets."

"Yes sir." He closed the line to Cerberus command and opened the one to his comrades and said: "Change of plans guys, we apprehend them both, surround and hold position I'm engaging.

His team surrounded the crash site, while he approached the targets, he raised his weapon, deactivated his cloak and said: "You're coming with us, both of you." The girl wisely threw her hands in the air and looked completely terrified, the human on the other hand reacted with a glare in his eyes and a snarl on his lips.

A plan began to formulate itself I Gabriel's head the moment the commando revealed himself, but it was thrown out a few moments later when more commandoes revealed themselves. He reverted to a very old strategy, intimidation. He glared at the leader and yelled: "Do you even know who it is you are threatening boy?" His expression darkened as he continued: "I can have you over that edge and headshot each of your friends in six seconds flat."

The leader of the commandoes gave a scornful laugh and said: "Go ahead and try old man."

"You will regret saying that boy." Gabriel sprung into action, opening up with two rapid strikes to the head followed by a fist in the throat, thereby disorienting his opponent and cutting off his air supply. The commando dropped his weapon. Gabriel grabbed the commando by the throat and with one hand lifted him out over the edge of the cliff.

The commando was baffled, he had made a beginners mistake, he had underestimated his enemy´, and It was about to cost him dearly. The process of him getting overwhelmed had taken less than 4 seconds. He was desperately trying to breathe, which was pretty hard since the old man was in the process of strangling him, while holding out over a cliff, and the punch to his throat didn't help things either. Lucas had been in many a though situation and he rarely got frightened, but while he was struggling for air in the strangers iron grip, he could not help look into his eyes, and what he saw scared him. Those eyes were completely devoid of compassion, his eyes were burning with pure fury.

Lucas' comrades didn't have time to react before their leader was being held out over a cliff. They knew that Lucas was at the mercy of his assailant, but they all pointed their weapons at him anyway. One of them stood forward and yelled: "Put him down NOW."

Without looking away from his captive Gabriel said: "Are you sure? It is hard to survive to a five hundred meter drop."

The Mexican standoff was interrupted by a new arrival, a raven haired woman, dressed in a black and white uniform. She approached the crash site saying: "I'm impressed Gabriel, I didn't think you would be up to the task when last we met, looks like I was wrong."

While being strangled Lucas managed to blurt out: "Miss Lawson, what the fuck is going on here, who the hell is this guy?"

Miranda chuckled: "In a moment." She looked at her men and said: "Men put your weapons down." They complied. She looked over at Gabriel and said: "Will you please put down my commander, and then we can have a civil conversation."

Gabriel looked back at Miranda, looking very annoyed and said: "Fine." But Miranda didn't say where or how to put him down, so he threw the commander into one of his comrades. He walked over to Miranda, saying: "There I put him down, now tell me what the fuck is going on here."

She looked over at her men, raising an arm pointing it at Gabriel and said: "Gentlemen may I introduce you to Major Gabriel Shepard, The Wolf of Shanxi, The scourge of Morran and most importantly of all, father of commander Jane Shepard."

The commandoes were astounded, completely lost for words, until one of the broke the silence by saying: "Are you telling me that we threatened the granddaddy of the alliance? We are lucky to be alive."

In the background Tania looked at Gabriel very confused, was he that monster from the stories, the man that murdered an entire colony without a second thought? Legends it seems have a tendency not to be so grand in real life.

Miranda simply nodded.

_I am currently trying to figure out the best way of splitting up sections of the story, if anyone can tell me how to do it properly I would appreciate it._

_And as usual, if you read and don't review Gabriel kills a turian._


	6. Caught

The Illusive man sat in his chair, hands folded, staring at the star his station currently orbited. He had just received a rapport from Miranda that she had extracted The Major, and some turian girl. He instructed the commandos to eliminate the turian at the earliest opportunity. He poured himself a glass of scotch and emptied it all in one draught. He was looking forward to seeing his old friend again.

* * *

To say Tania was nervous would be an understatement. She was currently sharing a shuttle with a human guilty of genocide, six commandoes whose allegiance she didn't know, and a raven-haired woman who really gave her the creeps. Some of the commandoes were chitchatting about their exploits, others were cleaning their weapons and armor, Gabriel however were sitting completely still in his seat, hands folded, and staring into the floor. Tania spent the first half of the trip glaring at Gabriel, while simultaneously fearing for her life. At some point during the trip she looked out the viewport and saw that they were approaching a spaceport. Seeing that her trip was almost at an end she finally worked up the courage to ask him the question that had been bothering her ever since she discovered his identity as the Scourge of Morran. The Scourge of Morran had become a legendary figure in turian culture ever since the relay 314 incident, the story of the Scourge had become one of those stories that turian mothers told tier children to scare them into obedience: "Why? Why did you do it?" She asked him.

"Did what?" He shrugged, sounding completely uninterested. "I've done so much to so many people so you'll need to be more specific."

"Morran, you nuked hundreds of thousands of innocents, WHY did you do it?"

Gabriel looked at her and said: "I did not nuke Morran, I crashed a Dreadnought into it yes, but I did not bring those nukes aboard, I suspect they were intended for a very different target altogether." Her eyes widened and her mandibles spread wide when she heard what he was insinuating, he chuckled a bit when he saw the look on her face.

The look on her face turned from one of shock to one of anger, she snarled at him and said: "HOW DARE you accuse the generals of intending to use nuclear…"

He leaned forward his face about 3 inches away from hers and said: "Do. Not. Growl. At. Me." His voice was cold as ice, yet dripping with venom. "Your kind came to my world, killed those under my protection. So yes I dare, I think I am entitled to do so. Now since you ask, the answer is simple: To teach your kind a lesson it would not forget anytime soon."

"What lesson? By the spirits what were we supposed to learn by getting nuked?" She asked confused.

Gabriel stared into her eyes, a stare that could send krogan running to their mothers and laughed: "Don't fuck with humanity."

* * *

When the shuttle landed Miranda heard a beeping sound coming from her arm, it was her omni-tool. On the screen flashed two words: no witnesses. She looked over at the soldier sitting next to Tania and nodded, he understood immediately. The soldier drew his knife and grabbed Tania, he didn't get any further. Gabriel was nothing if not observant.

The moment Gabriel saw the soldier reach for his knife he sprang into action. He jumped at the soldier and yanked the knife out of his hands. Gabriel put the soldier in a headlock and put the knife up against his throat. The unfortunate soldier yelped in pain. Gabriel reached into the soldier's belt and pulled out a grenade. He looked over at Tania and said: "Get in the back." She hesitated. "NOW." He yelled. She complied. Gabriel followed her over towards the rear hatch while keeping his hostage in a headlock.

The soldiers reacted predictably by rushing to their feet and aiming their weapons at Gabriel. Miranda however merely observed, with great interest. Gabriel positioned himself so that most of his body was in cover behind the unfortunate solder and so that should he get shot his fall would still cut the jugular of the soldier. He smiled, held up the grenade and pressed the activator. Gabriel glared at the soldiers, shook the grenade and said: "Dead man switch, so I wouldn't do that if I were you!" He looked over at Tania and yelled: "Open the door and get the hell out of here!"

Tania slammed her fist into a button on the side of the shuttle, the door opened, far too slowly in her mind. She didn't even wait for the door to open completely before she jumped out and ran. She looked back only to hear Gabriel yell: "Don't worry about me, RUN!"

With Tania safe Gabriel went into action. He backed up to the exit and let go of the knife to press the door button. He jumped back out of the shuttle while pushing the soldier and throwing the grenade back inside.

Miranda had seen enough and decided that it was time to intervene. She got up and without even blinking used her biotics to throw the grenade out of the shuttle and pull Gabriel back in. She opened the commlink to the pilot and said: "We have what we came for, take us back."

* * *

Gabriel flew through the doorway and crashed into the floor, face first. He wondered how this had happened, humans wasn't supposed to have biotics, she wasn't supposed to be that fast and he most certainly wasn't supposed to be lying on the floor in a shuttle surrounded by angry armed people he tried to kill mere moments ago. To him it felt like the universe had a really dark sense of humor, having him being literally inches away from freedom, just to snatch it all away at the last second, all because of a girl, a turian girl no less. He asked himself, hadn't he sworn that he would kill every single turian in existence back on Blackwater? He just had to pick this day to chivalrous. He tried to get back on his feet, but his back was met by an armored boot, all he managed to say before he felt something hit the back of his head was: "Ahh fuck."

* * *

Miranda met with The Illusive man in his inner sanctum to discuss the Major's immediate future. He sat in his chair reading mission rapports from his many agents across the galaxy, all while ingesting generous amount of scotch. As she entered he said: So tell me, how is the major?"

"Currently sedated otherwise he is fine." She replied with little emotion in her voice. "He will probably have a headache when we wake him up though."

"So Miranda, was he worth your time? Does he live up to your standards?" He said after drinking considerable amount of scotch.

Miranda thought long and hard about that question, on one hand had the Major certainly impressed her with his skill with arms. Escaping and Destroying The Necropolis was certainly evidence that he possessed the same godlike martial prowess as his daughter. It was however not the state of his body that worried her, it was the state of his mind. It was his actions toward that turian that made her question his mental health. Was it not footage of The Major declaring the turians to be enemies of the alliance, that every human racist group used whenever they wanted to incite hatred against the turians? And yet he had still defended that girl even after she had accused him of genocide, he had even been inches away from killing her and her team. "Frankly I don't think that he is fit for duty, I think that he has become unstable during his stay on The Necropolis. One moment he threatens the girl, the next he almost sacrifices himself for her."

The Illusive Man rubbed his chin and said: "Give your thoughts to doctor Swann, she will get him fit for duty." He proceeded to ignore her, leaned into his seat and stare into the twin stars that his station currently orbited. He had a pretty good idea why he had acted the way he did, Gabriel was a man of his word, and he would not let anyone make him a liar.

With a groan Gabriel awoke, on a metal slab, in a lab, with a splitting headache and he wasn't sure which was worse. He tried to rub his forehead, but something was preventing him from doing so, he was strapped to the metal slab. After two minutes of struggling against the restraints he heard a voice, female: "Relax Major, the restraints come when we've run a health check on you."

"Like hell you are, I'm not letting you touch me with anything." As she came close he tried to grab her but was stopped by the restraints.

The doctor sighed and said: "Major if you don't relax I am going to have to put you back under."

Gabriel merely growled at her, since he didn't know how to respond. As the doctor started to examine him, Miranda entered the room with a sigh. "Major if we wanted you hurt, why do you think we helped escape?"

"I was a big player in the alliance back in the day, if I had a penny for each classified project I worked on I would be a very wealthy man." He said with perhaps a bit of pride and nostalgia in his voice. "And what do mean your help? I didn't get squat help from you, so I'm not sharing credit for bringing down that hellhole."

She rolled her eyes at his sense of self-importance, it had been twenty six years since he had worked on any project for the alliance, practically all of the big pre-first contact projects had either been decommissioned or declassified. "Major don't get so full of yourself, all of your projects were declassified years ago. And by the way do you really think that you would have event attempted to escape if I hadn't showed up?"

She was right and he knew it, he would never had attempted an escape if she hadn't visited him, he would probably still be sitting in that cell if she hadn't given him a reason to escape. He shook his head and said with a laugh: "Tell me how did the turians react to the little gift I had been preparing for them in the Vault?"

Vault? What was the Vault? Miranda had no idea, and the way he said gift sounded like the villain in a movie when he reveals his master plan. She made a mental note that she would talk to The Illusive Man about this later. She might have been confused, but her only outward response was a raised eyebrow. However that raised eyebrow was all Gabriel needed to guess what had happened, he laughed. "They never revealed it, did they? I guess that I wouldn't either if I wanted them to sign a peace treaty."

The doctor was thankful for Miranda's intervention, as it distracted the Major for long enough for her to do her job, or perhaps it only calmed him down enough so he would let her do it without a fuss. When she was done Miranda started speaking again: "I'll be honest with you Major, I simply don't know what to do with you. I don't think that you are still fit for duty, that makes you worthless to me, and on my station worthless either gets useful." She paused for a moment. "Or it gets thrown out of the airlock."

Before she could continue he interrupted her. "Do it, I dare you. You'd be surprised how much trouble I can be." Considering what he had done to the Necropolis she honestly did not want to find that out.

She in annoyance and brushed a few hairs away from her eyes. "As I was saying, but my boss disagrees, he thinks that it would only piss you off. So to avoid any Shepard related accidents wants to offer you a job instead. We'll see whether or not his faith in you is justified."

"And if I refuse?"

She shrugged and said: "If you refuse I guess we could drop you off at Acturus or Shanxi or something, but not before you meet the boss."

Gabriel looked over at the doctor and said: "So what's the verdict doc?"

The doctor pulled up a data pad and said: "Considering that you have imprisoned for the better part of three decades I would say that you are in pretty good shape." She rubbed her chin for a moment and said: "Though the state of some of your bones is worrying, it seems like many of your breaks haven't healed right, if we had some more time I would like to…"

He interrupted her and said: "Doc will those breaks prevent me from doing my job?"

She hesitated for a moment before saying: "Well, no but…"

"Then we will look at it later." he said, dismissing the good doctor out of hand.

Once again Miranda interrupted: "Doctor Swann can you please release the major?"

The doctor complied, or at least she tried to, for when she reached the console controlling the restraints Gabriel was already free. Both women stared confused at him, in response he held up sliver of metal and with a sly smile he said: "Let's go see this illusive boss of yours."

Miranda had a feeling that she would either like or hate this man.

* * *

_Authors note._

I'm sorry for not updating in a while, but real life had some other things it thought I should be doing. So he finally gets to meet the illusive man, that's going to get interesting for sure. I would genuinely like to know if any of you reading thinks that I have made him too overpowered or too much of an unstoppable force, and whether or not he needs to get a little hurt.

Edit: I finally discovered the fine art of making the layout of a story readable.

And as usual, if you read and don't review Gabriel kills a turian.


	7. The Man

Miranda led Gabriel to a dark room, only illuminated by the system's twin suns. The light was dim, shrouding the room in a veil of darkness. In the middle of the room was a large chair, surrounded by holographic displays, with a lone line of smoke emerging from behind it.

Miranda stepped forward and said: "You wanted to talk to him, here he is."

"Well major, you are a hard man to find, though I must admit I expected to find you in hell, not the city of the dead." Came a voice from behind the chair. That voice caught felt so familiar to Gabriel, but he couldn't quite place it.

"Who are you? Why did you break me out?" He told the chair and whomever sat in it. By now Miranda had disappeared into the shadows to observe.

"I broke you out because we need your help, and as for who I am, I think you already know." He swung the chair around to face Gabriel and continued with a smug look on his face. "Hello Gabriel."

"What the… Jack? Jack Harper, you are the boss that I've heard so much about?" He said not quite sure whether or not he could believe his eyes. When Gabriel had last seen Jack, he was barely competent enough to be leading a small squad of infiltrators. Had anyone told Gabriel that Harper would be leading a clearly powerful and well funded organization, he would have laughed their asses off.

"Surprised Gabriel, or were you expecting someone else?"

"I don't know who I was expecting to be sitting in that chair, but I certainly wasn't expecting you. Now cut the bullshit WHY am I here?"

"I forgot how blunt you are Gabriel." He chuckled for a moment. "I'm afraid we brought you here under false pretenses, your daughter…" He waited for a moment letting the suspense get to Gabriel. "Is dead."

"WHAT, you bastard." He snarled, with his fists clenched and his nails dug deep into the palms of his hands. He glared at Jack wondering how he should kill treacherous bastard in front of him.

Jack smiled smugly, he knew how to get Gabriel angry, now all he had to do was to direct that anger and the collectors would have a powerful enemy. "Calm down Gabriel, I had nothing to do with your daughter's death, it was the collectors who orchestrated it." He pushed a button and a holographic screen appeared in between him and Gabriel, it was showing the Normandy… and his daughter.

Gabriel stared at the screen, his anger completely forgotten when he saw the commanding officer of the Normandy, his daughter, he recognized her from the files Miranda gave him on the Necropolis. His hands relaxed and revealed bloody palms. Tears began to form in his eyes and he started to smile. Jack pushed a button making the screen show a close up of the commander. Gabriel reached out and tried to touch the screen, passing right through it. "She looks so much like her mother." He said, barely keeping himself from crying.

Jack jumped the footage forward the collector attack and looked on as Gabriel watched the final moments of his daughter's life. Tears started flowing from Gabriel's eyes, he had never felt so helpless, he had just learned that his daughter had survived the disaster that ruined his only to see her die again. When the footage finally stopped he fell to his knees and cried.

"I can't offer you vengeance just yet, but I can offer you something better, we can bring her back."

Gabriel looked up in utter disbelief and said: "What? That's impossible."

Jack smiled smugly and said in a condescending voice: "You of all people should know how little that word means to people with vision." He activated more screens, showing detailed medical information about commander Shepard. "The human body is a self repairing organism, all it requires to do so is for the body's basic functions work."

"Are you serious? Even if you could get a dead body back you would still have the problem of a decomposed brain. "

"I am aware of that problem, and it has already been solved. During her mission for the council, Commander Jane Shepard's brain was affected by protean technology, to study the effects of her exposure her brain was mapped down to the molecular level. The scan was completed mere hours before her death, so we have a perfectly good baseline."

Gabriel got back up and collected himself. "Since you have everything covered, why do you need me?"

"The alliance never actually bothered to recover her body, it has since been claimed by the Blue Suns mercenaries who intend to sell her off to the collectors, we can't allow that."

"I presume that is where I come in."

"Exactly, we need a soldier who will do whatever it takes to find her, I think that's you."

"One thing still puzzles me, why are you doing this? What do you get out of this?"

Jack stood up and stared out into the void. "Humanity faces the greatest threat of our brief existence, when they come we will need a hero, a banner to rally behind, that why we need her, that is why we need to bring her back."

Gabriel nodded and said: "Just point me at them."

Jack pressed yet another button causing a hologram of Omega to appear. "They have brought her to Omega, we don't know where just yet but we will have that information when you arrive. Before you leave you will get a crash course in current affairs to bring you up to speed."

Gabriel studied the hologram for a moment before walking away. "I will see you when I get back."

"Talk to the guard outside, he will show you to the room we set up for you, I can assure you that it is more comfortable than your previous Accommodations."

When Gabriel had left Miranda walked out from the shadows and joined her boss by the window. "Are you really going to send him out without a psychological evaluation?"

"I have seen what I need to see." Miranda gave him a skeptical look and he elaborated. "Did you think I choose to show him those pictures at random? I had planned this encounter since before you boarded the Necropolis, I needed to know whether or not he still is the man I remember. I was hopeful when I heard what he did to that ship." With a smirk he added. "And now I know for sure, he is just like I remember him."

"He broke down crying, are you saying that that is the man you remember?"

With a smirk he said: "A perfectly natural reaction to seeing your daughter die, it shows me that he still cares, I am not worried."

Miranda shook her head and added: "But you are still sending him out unprepared."

"Give him a crash course in galactic affairs and the supplies he needs to bring the corpse back."

"And what about T'soni and Feron?"

"Don't inform them about the Major, I would like to see how good Ms T'soni really is."

* * *

_++++Galatic codex+++++_

_Username: Herod_

_Password **********_

_Password accepted._

_Welcome User: Gabriel._

_Opening document: Major Gabriel Shepard._

_Showing Excerpt: Legacy._

_Historians today generally accept that Major Gabriel Shepard has had a much larger influence on the development of the pre citadel alliance than his rank might suggest, this is largely thought to be because of his close partnership with his longtime friend and superior General Williams. Along with General Williams he created what is now the Blackwater training facility on Shanxi and the many fortifications there. He and Williams were also instrumental in the development of the N program and they subsequently used the program's success to further its development into one of the finest Special Forces programs in the galaxy. Public perception of him varies greatly from culture to culture, in human circles he is generally perceived as a hero. In turian culture however he is vilified as one of the most dangerous terrorists ever, he is often compared to figures such as the Illusive Man or the krogan warlord Shiagur. He was even nicknamed by turian press as the "Scourge of Morran" a now common figure in turian folklore. _

A knock on the door snapped Gabriel back to reality, he was sitting in a modest room containing only the essentials, a bed, a desk with a computer and closet containing whatever personal items he had left. Some might have called his quarters empty or unequipped, but compared to Gabriel's previous accommodations it was pure luxury. Dirty dishes littered one corner of the room, ever since Gabriel had left the Illusive Man's office he had been doing two things, eating and reading.

The door slid open and Miranda entered, walking around his room like she owned the place, which in some sense she probably did. However didn't really give it much thought, as most thoughts of privacy had been purged from his mind by years of imprisonment and 24/7 surveillance.

Miranda looked over at the stacks of dirty plates and said: "You have certainly kept yourself busy."

He swung the chair around and said: "Well now you know not to place an all you can eat buffet near a man who haven't had a proper meal in twenty six years."

She sighed and said: "I will keep that in mind, but we have more important things to discuss than your eating habits. In order to be successful on your mission you will need to be brought up to speed on galactic affairs. Get comfortable major, this is going to take a while."

_Well to anyone who still cares here is some more The Elder Shepard. I am going to try to get one of these up around once a month, but dont count on it. (ME3 is coming out, like anyone who reads this wasnt aware of that fact)_

_And as usual every time you read and dont review Gabriel kills a turian._


End file.
